A calm weekend before the epic battles ahead

Another mammoth weekend for one epic as some new releases join the also-rans for an anonymous time in theaters. This will be a very narrow window of attention for any of them as the next two weeks will deliver consecutive winning hero pics with “Deadpool 2”, followed immediately by “Solo: A Star Wars Story”.

So, before May goes out like a theater brawl, here is this weeks’ results from movie screens.

1.  AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR – $61.8 Million
This one is all about the numbers, becoming the second-fastest title to half a billion dollars, doing so in just 15 days. It is at the $550 million mark domestically, and in a couple of days should cross $800 million in foreign sales. This approaches a global total of $1.3 billion which, to lend perspective, places it in the same strata as the massive hit “Black Panther”. The difference? That film had nearly 3 months to hit that level, while “IW” is there in the matter of weeks.

2. LIFE OF THE PARTY – $18.5m
Melissa McCarthy’s newest comedy romp (essentially a retelling of “Back To School”) is not generating confetti-falling results. This stands as her lowest opening in her comedy canon, and wit the massive hit looming on the horizon it will struggle to leg out better figures. Scoring a very average “B” CinemaScore means the word of mouth among women ticket-buyers may not be strong enough to push this to success.

3. BREAKING IN – $16.5m
Another debut with modest interest, but a different success rate. The smarter way to play in this part of the schedule is to come in with a much smaller expense. While “Life Of The Party” was made for around $30 million, this genre thriller was produced for just $6 million, delivering comparable results. The Gabrielle Union drama was marketed to POC females and managed to generate enough interest this has a decent chance at a profit.

4. OVERBOARD – $10.1m
A respectable enough hold in week #2 of just -31% drop, due to it actually adding 400 screens. But it had a near anonymous debut, so it is not much to crow about. It will only fade from here.

5. A QUIET PLACE – $6.4m
The show of strength is in this being the 6th week in release and it still stands in over 3,000 screens. In North America it has pulled in $170 million, and almost another $100 million overseas.

6. I FEEL PRETTY – $3.71m
Managing to linger, but only because with the meager pickings for the remaining films there is little distinction.

7. RAMPAGE – $3.38m
Starting to shed screens (dropping 600 this week) it is still stomping slowly towards $100 million, which it may have reached without the massive competition.

8. TULLY – $2.24m
Largely disregarded it has a tough road to even find a way to $10 million.

9. BLACK PANTHER – $1.93m
Making its last swipe in the coming weeks it is poised to find its way over the $700 million plateau this week.

10. RBG – $1.16m
This documentary about the life and career of Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a worthwhile viewing.